3rd November

Born: Lucan, Latin poet, 39 A.D., Cordova.

Died: Constantius, Roman emperor, 361, Mopsucrene, Cilicia; Pope Leo the Great, 461; James II, king of Aragon, 1327, Barcelona; Thomas de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, killed in France, 1428; Bishop Robert Lowth, biblical writer, 1787, Fulham,; Theophilus Lindsey, Unitarian divine, 1808; Dr. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, musical composer, 1847, Leipsic.

Feast Day: St. Papoul or Papulus, priest and martyr, 3rd century. St. Flour, bishop and confessor, about 389. St. Rumald or Rumbald, confessor, patron of Brackley and Buckingham. St. Wenefride or Winifred, virgin and martyr, in Wales. St. Hubert, bishop of Liege, confessor, 727. St. Malachy, archbishop of Armagh, confessor, 1148.

ST. RUMALD

They who have read Foxe's Martyrology, will perhaps remember that several Lollards who, to save their bodies from the stake, renounced the 'new doctrine,' were nevertheless required to walk to Buckingham, and present an offering at the shrine of St. Rumald. Now this St. Rumald, whose name is also written Rumbald, and Grumbald, was a very remarkable saint. According to Leland, who copies from a monkish life of him, he was the son of the king of Northumbria by a Christian daughter of Penda, king of Mercia. He was born at Sutton, in Northamptonshire, but not far from the town of Buckingham. Immediately he came into the world, he exclaimed: 'I am a Christian! I am a Christian! I am a Christian!' He then made a full and explicit confession of his faith; desired to be forthwith baptized; appointed his own godfathers; and chose his own name. He next directed a certain large hollow stone to be fetched for his font; and when some of his father's servants attempted to obey his orders, but found the stone far too heavy to be removed, the two priests, whom he had appointed his godfathers, went for it, and bore it to him with the greatest ease. He was baptized by Bishop Widerin, assisted by a priest named Eadwold, and immediately after the ceremony he walked to a certain well near Brackley, which now bears his name, and there preached for three successive days; after which he made his will, bequeathing his body after death to remain at Sutton for one year, at Brackley for two years, and at Buckingham ever after. This done, he instantly expired.

After this three-days' existence, the miraculous infant was buried at Sutton by Eadwold the priest; the next year he was translated by Bishop Widerin to Brackley; and the third year after his death, his remains were carried to Buckingham, and deposited in a shrine, in an aisle of the church which after-wards bore his name. Shortly before the year 1477, Richard Fowler, Esq., chancellor to Edward IV., began to rebuild this aisle, but died before its completion. In his will, therefore, he made this bequest:

This extreme care for the relics of the infant saint clearly spews that they were held in high veneration at this period, and they continued to be the object of pilgrimages till the middle of the sixteenth century.

There was also a famous image of St. Rumald at Bexley, in Kent. This statue or image was very small and hollow, and light, so that a child of seven years old might easily lift it, but, for some reason or other, it occasionally appeared so heavy that persons of great strength were unable to move it. 'The moving hereof,' says Fuller, 'was made the conditions of women's chastity. Such who paid the priest well, might easily remove it, whilst others might tug at it to no purpose. For this was the contrivance of the cheat-that it was fastened with a pin of wood by an invisible stander behind. Now, when such offered to take it who had been bountiful to the priest before, they bare it away with ease, which was impossible for their hands to remove who had been close-fisted in their confessions. Thus it moved more laughter than devotion, and many chaste virgins and wives went away with blushing faces, leaving (without cause) the suspicion of their wantonness in the eyes of the beholders; whilst others came off with more credit (because with more coin) though with less chastity.' Fuller concludes the Legend of St. Rumald with this remark:

A memorial of the saint is still preserved at Buckingham in the names of Well Street, and St. Ruonbald's Lane; and a well at Brackley bears his name.

It is not unworthy of observation, that Butler, in his Lives of the Saints, gives but a brief account of Rumald; and though acquainted with Leland's account of him, passes lightly over the miraculous story, only saying: 'He died very young on the 3rd of November, &c.

SPURS AND SPUR-MONEY

Among the privy-purse expenses of Henry VII, in the year 1495, appears the following item:

Apropos of these entries, Mr. Markland quotes a note from Gifford's edition of Ben Jonson, stating that from the disturbance of divine service in the cathedrals (more especially in St. Paul's) by the jingling of the spurs of persons walking in their precincts, a trifling fine was imposed upon offenders in this way, called. 'spur-money,' the collection of which was left to the beadles and singing boys. It seems to us that the connection between the text and note is rather doubtful-indeed, Mr. Markland himself says, 'it must first be shown that it prevailed at so early a period.' Nicholas supposed that in the above cases the money was paid to redeem the royal spurs from the choristers, who claimed them as their perquisites at installations, or at the annual feast in honour of St. George.

Spur-money, as a penalty to be paid for wearing spurs in a cathedral, seems to have been thoroughly established in the seventeenth century. In the Gull's Horn-Book, Decker, advising his readers how they should behave in St. Paul's, says:

We began our journey northwards from Cambridge, and that day, passing through Huntingdon and Stilton, we rode as far as Peterborough, twenty-five miles. There I first heard the cathedral service.

The choristers made us pay money for coming into the quire with our spurs on.' Another old writer complains that the boys neglect their duties to run about after spur-money. Modern choristers are not so bad as that, but they look sharply after their rights. Some few years ago, a visitor to Hereford Cathedral declined to satisfy the demands of the boys, who thereupon seized his hat, and decamped with it. The indignant despiser of old customs, instead of redeeming his property, laid a complaint before the bench; but the magistrates astonished him by dismissing the case on the grounds that the choristers were justified in keeping the hat as a lien for the payment of the customary fine. There was one way of escaping the tax, the spur-wearer being held exempt if the youngest chorister present failed to repeat his gamut correctly upon being challenged to do so. This curious saving clause is set forth officially in a notice issued by the dean of the chapel-royal in 1622:

By enforcing this rule, the Iron Duke once baffled, the young assailants of his purse. When a similar claim was made against the Duke of Cumberland (afterwards king of Hanover) in Westminster Abbey, he ingeniously evaded it by insisting that he was privileged to wear his spurs in the place in which he had been invested with them.

On the belfry-wall of All Saints Church, Hastings, hangs a rhymed notice, declaring the belfry free to 'all those that civil be,' with a proviso:

The debtors of Lancaster jail demand largess of any visitor wearing spurs within the castle-walls, and the doorkeeper of the Edinburgh Court of Session is privileged to demand five shillings from any one appearing in that court so accoutred.

Lord Colchester records in his diary (1776), that having inadvertently gone into the House of Commons booted and spurred, he was called to order by an old member for assuming a privilege only accorded to county members. This parliamentary rule is noticed by Sir James Lawrence in his Nobility of the British Gentry.

The first spur worn was merely a sharp goad, afterwards improved by bending the shank to suit the ankle. In the reign of Henry III, the rowelled spur made its first appearance; the rowel was gradually lengthened till it reached its maximum of seven inches and a half, in the time of Henry VI. Then came a change of fashion, and only spurs with close star-shaped rowels were in favour. At this time Ripon, in Yorkshire, was especially famous for the manufacture of spurs: 'As true steel as Ripon rowels,' became a proverbial expression. It was said that Ripon rowels would strike through a shilling, and rather break than bend. When James I passed through the town in 1617, he was presented with a pair of spurs valued at five pounds. The knights of old, proud of their spurs, were not content with simple steel. Brass and silver were pressed into service, and spurs were chased, gilt, decorated with jewels, and adorned with such mottoes as

Lady-equestrians adopted spurs at a very early period; Chaucer's wife of Bath is described by him as having:

The fops of Shakespeare's day, delighted to hear their spurs jingle as they strutted through the streets:

So, fastidious Brisk in Every Man oat of his Humour, praises his horse as 'a fiery little slave, he runs like a- Oh, excellent, excellent!-with the very sound of the spur!' And when an explanation of the latter phrase is demanded, replies: 'Oh, it's your only humour now extant, sir-a good jingle, a good jingle.'